Since its inception, capitalism has pushed the idea of gaining happiness through commodities. Although, now in the late stage of capitalism it has promoted another idea. The idea of the perfect man.
This is not Nietzsche’s ubermensch. In fact, it is far from the opposite. There are 24 hours in the day, yet society expects you to exercise, work successfully, meditate, catch up on your hobbies, and be spiritually active all in one day.
The capitalist society has created an archetype of what it means to be perfect, successful, and balanced. It is our job to chase and run after this archetype and until we transform into this archetype, we always feel that we lack something.
This feeling can be seen in the jobless youth. In the person who has a job but is obese because of junk food. In the person who has stress because of their job. In the person who is not getting a promotion. In the person who is not able to give time to hobbies.
Subconsciously, we all have accepted this archetype and keep aiming to be transformed.
The sad truth is that accepting this capitalist ideal is far from the idea of an ubermensch.
An ubermensch is someone who creates his or her own values, but when we try to attain the perfect man archetype we all become copies of each other. No one is satisfied and everyone is the same.
Despite pushing the perfect individual archetype, the capitalist society doesn’t actually want you to excel. You see, life is only long enough to excel at one or two things. At our current stage of society, you are perfect if you do everything mediocrely instead of a few things excellently.
You may be a Mozart or a Van Gogh, but if you don’t have a job and don’t complete your checklist of tasks, then, my friend, you are a failure.
About the author
Chirag Saxena is the author of ‘Reinventing the Wheel’ and a creative strategist by profession. He takes great interest in philosophical questions.